Among the golfers to tee off during the LPGA Kingsmill Championship this week, one is probably the closest thing to a hometown player Williamsburg can offer.
Elsa Diaz graduated from the University of Richmond on Saturday, then made the drive with her visiting family to Williamsburg. The business marketing major — who hails from San Antonio, Texas — earned the event’s sponsor amateur exemption to compete in the annual LPGA tour event.
“I can’t describe what I’m feeling inside,” Diaz says. “I am very, very excited.”
This whole week is dedicated to the tournament at Kingsmill Resort, including practice rounds and Wednesday’s pro-am. Championship rounds begin Thursday on the River Course.
There are nearly 150 female golfers from 28 countries playing this week in the tournament, which was won last year by Lexi Thompson. Diaz, 22, who grew up watching many of the seasoned LPGA players, says she’s thrilled to be joining them on the links.
Diaz began playing golf at age 9 through The First Tee, a nationwide youth development program that introduces young people to the game of golf and its values. Although she enjoyed the program, she didn’t immediately love golf. Then at age 15, she was invited to The First Tee’s Pebble Beach Open. That sealed her fate.
“I was on the green and I looked out at the water, and I said, ‘This is what I want to do,’ ” she recalls. “This is what I want to fight for.”
She later played in a speed tournament at the University of Richmond, where the coach spotted her and ended up inviting Diaz and her sister to play golf with the Spiders.
Playing with UR, Diaz helped break team records and broke a few of her own. Among her accolades: She played one of the two lowest rounds in program history at the Boston College Intercollegiate last fall, and helped guide the Spiders to three conference championships in a row.
A recent tweet posted on UR’s website lauded Diaz’s contribution to the golf team: “She helped change the culture of this program and leaves it as a foundation for excellence.”
Kingsmill Championship Director Matthew Schulze has said previously that he hopes the annual tournament will engage the community from Charlottesville to Virginia Beach. Having a college player as the amateur exception helps make yet another connector, he says.
“We’re looking forward to having the best LPGA tournament we’ve had,” Schulze says.
Golfer Natalie Gulbis, in her 18thseason on the LPGA tour, says the fan base at the Kingsmill Championship always impresses her and other golfers, who look forward to the event every year.
“The golf course is amazing,” says Gulbis, who like many other LPGA players, stays with the same host family in Williamsburg every year. “It’s one of the best courses, if not the best, we play all year. There’s no other weeks like that on tour.”
The quality of the players hitting the course this week is as good as it’s ever been, Gulbis adds.
Diaz, who got to speak to Gulbis by video phone a few weeks before the tournament, even got a little bit of advice from a woman she’s admired from afar for years. Gulbis told Diaz to take advantage of the “special opportunity to play professional golf” and enjoy every minute.
Diaz plans to.
“With golf, it’s one of those sports where you have to remember to stay in the moment,” Diaz says. “I’m ready for it.”
To attend the tournament, you can purchase tickets online or at the gate. Visit thekingsmillchampionship.com for more information.
